HD Deve Gowda takes a dig at Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: JD(S) national president HD Deve Gowda said on Wednesday that there had been sustained attempts by Congress MLAs to malign CM HD Kumaraswamy.

At a party workers’ convention, Gowda took at an indirect dig at former CM Siddaramaiah, saying he had never made a critical remark about Congress rule in the previous five years (when Siddaramaiah was the CM), but some Congress MLAs often spoke in an accusatory tone against the CM.

He said the JD(S) had been treating its partner well and the government was responding to requests from individual Congress MLAs, yet they were critical of the government. “I will not let the JD(S)-Congress coalition to break. At the same time, Congress leaders should also stop passing casual remarks on us,” he said. CM Kumaraswamy, too, made his displeasure known, saying he came from a family known for its sacrifice, referring to the way Gowda quit the PM’s post in the mid-1990s. “Would I care, then, to go on sticking to the post of CM?” he asked.